Hey guys. I am trying to program my LED strips to create the effect of trickling Icicle drops. So if you can imagine a White Light traveling down the strip skipping every other light. I would also like to figure out how to run it in reverse.
REASON: Im going to be installing hundreds of these in a forest area, Id like to create the effect of the LEDS falling towards you from the treetops, id like to reverse it to gain an alien abduction like effect. If that makes any kind of sense.
Please help me with this! i cant seem to find any information in programming addressable LEDS.
Hey guys. I am trying to program my LED strips to create the effect of trickling Icicle drops. So if you can imagine a White Light traveling down the strip skipping every other light. I would also like to figure out how to run it in reverse.
REASON: Im going to be installing hundreds of these in a forest area, Id like to create the effect of the LEDS falling towards you from the treetops, id like to reverse it to gain an alien abduction like effect. If that makes any kind of sense.
Please help me with this! i cant seem to find any information in programming addressable LEDS.
I have found alot of different code for these strips but i am trying to do something specific. Also just because i found code doesnt mean i can understand it. The only decent tutorial i can seem to find on the matter is the Adafruit guide:
and it doesn't go into detail hardly at all about code.
Looks cool, I just ordered a strip of it. Might take a few weeks to arrive.
That PDF mentions a library, have you tried any examples at all? From what I've read so far you have to clock out the pixels using SPI, so you would need to create a "bitmap" in memory of the effect that you want and then clock that out to the LEDs.
To get started in your shoes I would be following some of those Google links and at least get something to happen, and then compare that something to what you really want.
The strips i have are the LPD8806 model. Using an Arduino Mega. I still need the lights in-between in order to run other led setups. And yes Kir, exactly like that.
I have tried all of the examples and have been able to manipulate some of the runs. But it seems that what i am trying to do is completely different so im not exactly sure where to start seeing as my programming knowledge is very limited as far as Addressable LEDS go. You would think there is some pre written code out there, I have been searching for weeks.
fugus: I think what he means is that he doesn't have the knowledge on how to actually write the code to make the LEDs do what he wants them to do. Not so much how to actually communicate with the driver.
greatmast164: Start at the beginning: get a string to actually work first, not necessarily displaying the trickle effect you're after, but simply do something, anything. Learn how to use them, how to change the colors and blink pattern., etc., etc. It's easier when using a library such as the FastSPI_LED(2) library. Read up on it first.
KirAsh4: fugus: I think what he means is that he doesn't have the knowledge on how to actually write the code to make the LEDs do what he wants them to do. Not so much how to actually communicate with the driver.
His exact words were: "i cant seem to find any information in programming addressable LEDS"
greatmast164:
I have tried all of the examples and have been able to manipulate some of the runs. But it seems that what i am trying to do is completely different so im not exactly sure where to start seeing as my programming knowledge is very limited as far as Addressable LEDS go. You would think there is some pre written code out there, I have been searching for weeks.
I would think that the most useful examples out there that would work would be in POV projects. Many of those use a string of addressable LEDs. The desired image for those is segmented in strips and flashed out to the string of LEDs as frames fast enough that when you wave the string around the viewer's persistance of vision make it appear as the image is floating in space. Your application just sounds slower than that and static strings. But the technique should be similar.
You can either have predefined pattern loops stored on a SD card that you read in and then shift out, or you can set up an array to use as a frame buffer that you manipulate algorithmically (allows for randomization to avoid distracting, obvious loops). You send the frame buffer out to the string of LEDs, change the parts of the frame buffer you need to change, send it out again, wash, rinse, and repeat.
Hopefully this should help point you in a fruitful direction. (I also don't have any experience with doing this, but this is the direction I would first start.)
Not being able to give you a "do this, and this will happen" answer I'd still would like to point you in the direction of the 30(ish) FastSPI2 LED Effects found on: FastSPI LED Effects [UPDATED TO WORK WITH FastSPI_2] » funkboxing, use the "FastSPI_2_RC1" one.
Pretty decent documentation in the code that explains what each 'snippet of effect' code does. Using FastSPI it has support for lpd8806 based led strips, so you will come a long way by just commenting out the bit's you are sure you don't need and test what happends when modifying the rest. I've gotten some spectacular results on my 100xWS2801 string without being all too sure on what I was doing.
How to get the effects running on multiple strings I have no idea about though, but I guess that if you manage the adressing on one, the rest will be googleble (is that a word?).
Yrrgh:
How to get the effects running on multiple strings I have no idea about though, but I guess that if you manage the adressing on one, the rest will be googleble (is that a word?).
Define multiple controllers within FastSPI, using different pins.
From what I've read the LEDs can be daisy chained to almost infinite length, except that you are limited by RAM as to the sequence of bits you need to shove out the chain.
